DAVID’S STORY AND SUICIDE PREVENTION...

David’s family believes David’s tragedy could very well have been prevented if there had been more support services available to him, especially at school. In particular, David’s mom has gone through countless hours of soul searching about her son’s life and asked herself what can help other people struggling to cope with suicidal impulses or other mental health issues.

“People like David—and especially people who create things like musicians, artists and painters—have a special sensitivity about them. It’s like they can reach into their inner soul. But they are also easily hurt and often don’t have the tough skin other people have. Sometimes they continue to hurt when other people may think they should have gotten over it. But these are a special breed of people and they feel things deeper. Their feelings plague them, and they just don’t seem to be able to work it out. I believe they need to talk to other people who can say I’ve been through it.”

David’s Den
is named in honor of David

David’s Den is named in honor of David, the younger brother of our founder Alex Chont.

David was a sensitive and loving young man who was devoted to his family and loved country music, hunting and fishing.  David was intelligent—and in many ways mature for his age—even though he struggled to fit in at school. He had a highly-developed sense of responsibility for his age and was determined to help his mother Margaret, who was a single parent, take care of his younger siblings.

Margaret remembers David as a sensitive soul who was drawn more to adults than other children and who—despite having a learning disability—pursued things that really interested him.

“David loved country music and especially loved Elvis and Tom T. Hall,” Margaret says. “He actually preferred the company of adults and as a kindred spirit with them. It was almost like he was a man before he was a child. He had a lot of depth and was very spiritual. His younger siblings really looked up to him and he was very protective of them. He nurtured them.”

David died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1996. Because he was a young teenager when he died,  David’s was called an accidental suicide because he probably didn’t grasp the of consequences of what he was doing. He may not have even know there were loaded bullets in the gun.